Par-tay

 

  



 

 

     

 

 

 

 

These photos record some but not all of the people who came to my "not a retirement party" party.  

Putting captions on these shots wrecks the layout, so use your imagination to figure out who among those pictured above are: 

• Bryne Brown, the first friend I made at the first job I had in Toronto at Ireland Graphics
• Mark Winfield from the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy, my first job after my call to the bar
• Loren Vanderlinden and Sean Severin from the City of Toronto. I worked with Loren on the City of Toronto Pesticide Bylaw; I worked with Sean on the City of Toronto Air Quality Strategy
• My former boss at the Ministry of the Environment, Adam Redish
• My former boss at the Ministry of the Environment, Jennifer Hooper
• My current boss at the Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines, Carolyn Calwell
• Tim Christie, the guy I beat at United Way Trivia
• The bridesmaids at one of my many wedding ceremonies: Jennifer Backer and Hillary Cox
• Kim and Kevan 
• Bruce's cousins: Richard Brown, Bernie Brown, Marianne Galwas and Rich Galwas.
• Dolly Goyette, who I saw at Barry Duffey's retirement party on the 21st, and who came to my party on the 22nd, and I went to hers on the 28th
• Anne Fleming, a friend from law school and the talented host for the evening

In the last photo, I'm posing with Ryan Zade, one of the people on my team, plus my discarded 4" heels.

It hasn't been all retirement parties this past week. I also went to a "Division Day" at work. Austerity measures helped us have fun and build a stronger team by hanging out for the afternoon in a condo party room, eating pizza, playing board games and receiving "SNAPPY" awards from our boss. Aside from our salaries for the half day, no tax dollars were spent.

Thanks for reading!

15 days left!

Karen

Still Not Retired

Spread at the Peter Pan Bistro: yummy

Days to go count is at 20, but because throwing a retirement party on December 20 is doomed to fail, I asked 60 former and current colleagues, plus friends and family to join me for some food and speeches last night.

The venue was the rooms upstairs at the Peter Pan Bistro; catering by same. I would not hesitate to recommend it. Do ask for the charcuterie and the zucchini fritters.

Big parties that are all about me happen rarely in my life.  They are overwhelming. I have difficulty now remembering how the whole evening went, but the crowd was a good size, maintained a raucous conversation and laughed appreciably at all the dumb jokes in my speech.

Some guests assumed that Friday was my last in the Ontario Pubic Service. I said, nope, I have another month to go.

Another month ...

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

Appearing tonight only:
 three former directors of the
 Air Policy and Climate Change Branch

  

Leadership

Field of poppies: Barbara Ann Scott Park by 777 Bay Street, Toronto

Under Trump, Republicans have become trash-talking conspiracy nuts, just like their boss.

The schtick plays well in pro wrestling arenas and political rallies, but loses its oomph in more grown-up venues, like impeachment hearings.

Not that the leader of the free world has noticed. The same day Roger Stone was found guilty of obstruction and witness tampering, Trump, in plain sight as always, did the same. 

Trump and his minions are the dumbest, least likeable, most egotistical guys in the room. They are the ones you hated in high school. And they have never really left high school. 

Meanwhile, in Ford Nation, a Finance Minister more self-directed than the last guy made it through the Fall Economic Statement (reverently referred to by insiders as the FEZ) without seriously embarrassing himself or his boss. 

That shows you the virtue of being your own man.

As for me, I'm counting the days (25), planning a big party, and wondering how it got to be mid-November already.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

Let That Sink In

In commemoration of the US departure from the Paris Climate Accord: I photographed these guardian angels outside Le Bourget in 2015, about ten days before the Paris Agreement was signed

I thought that being on the off ramp from full time employment might feel similar to the time I spent between when I knew I was finally going to get my hip surgery in 2016 (July) and when I actually had the surgery (August). 

That was a few weeks of happy anticipation, ending, just before the anaesthetic kicked in, with a fleeting wince of fear.

But it's not the same.

A few times every week as the days count down, I do find myself thinking "glad I'm never going to have to do this again" or "I'm not going to miss this."

But most of the time I put retirement out of my mind because if I didn't, I would gather my personal effects from my office, drop off my security pass, and walk out the door. 

Bragging Rights

Another person leaving the ministry (because he has another job; not because he's retiring) is the fellow who ran office trivia contests to support the United Way. I described the first of these contests that I participated in a while back. He held his last trivia tournament this past week.

The games are like Reach for the Top, with four-person teams and a gizmo with a buzzer system. In a contest six months ago, my team and I did well, ending up in a tie with the team that usually wins. The captain of that team, an affable chap named Tim, is fast on the button and knows everything. The rest of his team is just table fodder, maybe getting one answer in per game, as Tim dominates every round.

I missed the first game for this week's contest because I had a lunch date. This was lucky; the person subbing in for me nailed the "Beyonce" category and cinched the win. 

The finals were held on Friday. The way the tournament had worked out was my team had to beat one very strong team in order to face Tim and his table fodder. 

As we played the semi-final round, it felt like the teams, both with captains named Karen, were pretty evenly matched. When the questions were done we all waited anxiously as the quiz master tallied the scores. He said "Karen's team wins." We all howled "WHICH KAREN?!?!"   

My team won by three points.

After a short break, my team faced Tim's. 

Before the match that day, despite there being absolutely nothing at stake, one of my team members fretted that we would be demolished by either Karen's or Tim's teams. I said, "no, we're going to win." I wondered if my power of positive thinking approach would work. 

When you play the buzzer game against Tim, you feel like you're up against a robot. A lot of the time he answers before the whole question has been read. And even when you know the answer, Tim will beat you on the buzzer nine times out of ten.

Sometimes the only break you get against Tim is when the category stumps him. "Beyonce" helped my team beat him on Monday. And, implausibly, on Friday, it was "Movie Catch Phrases." Tim got "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," but my team got eight of the nine other answers in the category, including "Rosebud." When I got that one, I looked across the table at Tim, stunned. "I'm faster on the buzzer than you are?" I couldn't believe it. Tim said it was because I was closer to the control box.

We beat Tim's team by eight points. I can retire undefeated, by Tim.

29 days left.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen


















 

Pretty Epic

That's a very dead Jesus: Detail from The Entombment at the Early Rubens exhibit at the AGO. 

Peter Paul Rubens created the 17th C version of Marvel comics: crowded composition, lavish colours, violent events and larger than life heroes and villains.

Detail from the Drunken Silenus

And he had a nice way of rendering large cats.

Featured in this photo are a group of "bureau-cats" -- the group Hallowe'en costume at the office. As is too often the case these days, there were also zombies. Plus an unauthorized set of antlers.

34 days left.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen